We have an odd choice for Thursday Thanks today. I am grateful to Mike Woodward for explaining coaching clearly and powerfully.
One of the most difficult things about being an Executive Coach is explaining exactly what it is that coaches do. It’s not consulting, it’s not therapy, it’s not mentoring or advice. It can be hard to package sometimes, which can be frustrating. My clients get huge, earth-changing results (one actually hugged me on one occasion, another told me I was saving his life), but how do I explain it, given that it is more abstract than accounting, or IT, or a haircut, or a car wash?
Mike Woodward, writing at Fox Business News, actually does about as good a job as any I’ve yet seen at explaining Coaching. You can read the whole article, entitled “So What is Executive Coaching?”
here. Below are the money quotes:
“Both Nadler and Reynolds agree that coaching can be boiled down to one simple concept: being a thought partner. As Reynolds points out, ‘most people already have the answers to their problems. It’s just that the problems are masking what they really need to solve.’”
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“The idea behind working with an executive coach is to bring clarity to the issue and develop a plan of action for tackling it.”
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“According to Dr. Kenneth Randall, director of executive talent at Banner Health, ‘coaching can truly unleash a leader’s hidden potential.’“
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“We are all victims of living in our own heads and at times we all need help getting perspective. It’s not easy to evaluate ourselves, which is why there is so much value in having that thought partner bring perspective to our internal conversations.”
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